OSI
Office Of Strategic Influence

OSI is nothing more than a project. A super-project. One of the many side projects that the most famous prog-players in the world have accustomed us to.

And so, with personalities such as Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), Kevin Moore (Chroma Key and coincidentally ex-Dream Theater) and Jim Matheos, the first chapter of the (so far brief) OSI saga is born. Naturally, the parade of stars could have expanded by introducing Daniel Gildenlow on vocals (for those who don't know, the singer of Pain Of Salvation), but dear Kevin Moore wanted to do almost everything, also engaging on keyboards.

And what came out is an album that is certainly progressive but presents a desire for novelty and is permeated by a freshness today hardly found in the prog field. There are naturally various hidden influences in the tracks of the album, starting from Chroma Key themselves up to Fates Warning, but these are details that only an attentive ear to today's progressive would manage to find. Analyzing the songs in their succession, one realizes their stylistic heterogeneity: it moves from the more classic progressive of songs like the opening “The New Math (What he said)” and the following “OSI” to the more melancholic and almost acoustic parts of the following “When you're ready”, “Hello Helicopter” and the sweet “StandBy(looks like the rain)”.

But various territories are explored, mainly electronic ones that also recall atmospheres closer to a 70s rock-progressive, rather than its current metal derivation. I'm talking about “Horseshoes and B52” or the unsettling “ShutDOWN” with its infinite duration. The real masterpiece of the album would be the last track: a suite of 17 minutes and beyond titled “The thing that never was”. It's varied, transitioning from sinister and heavy atmospheres to calmer and more romantic shores. It is essentially an album of difficult, indeed very difficult assimilation. A definitely talented album: how can one deny the immeasurable value of the musicians?

And it certainly offers extremely interesting ideas, as well as an undeniable freshness, originality, and that desire to “dare and overdo” that never harms in the prog field. To be listened to multiple times and loved.